Question

I need to automatically change a record in my database on a specific date and time.

Example: When the date and time is 01/12/2012 17:15:00 I want some record to automatically be set to 1. Is there any solution to this?

(I am using Rails 3.2.6)

Update 30.11.12 – 13:06

The real problem is that I have a datetime record in my database, when the date and time in this record exceeds todays date and time – then I want another record to be set to 1. Is there any way I can make an if statement, or something, somewhere in my controller?

Answer 1

You could use whenever https://github.com/javan/whenever to set up a cron job for you

Whenever has an easy syntax in its schedule.rb file to let you run tasks “whenever” you like

From their readme:

every 3.hours do
  runner "MyModel.some_process"
  rake "my:rake:task"
  command "/usr/bin/my_great_command"
end

every 1.day, :at => '4:30 am' do
  runner "MyModel.task_to_run_at_four_thirty_in_the_morning"
end

every :hour do # Many shortcuts available: :hour, :day, :month, :year, :reboot
  runner "SomeModel.ladeeda"
end

every :sunday, :at => '12pm' do # Use any day of the week or :weekend, :weekday
  runner "Task.do_something_great"
end

every '0 0 27-31 * *' do
  command "echo 'you can use raw cron syntax too'"
end

# run this task only on servers with the :app role in Capistrano
# see Capistrano roles section below
every :day, :at => '12:20am', :roles => [:app] do
  rake "app_server:task"
end